Pelagos on Bell Blvd

Yesterday the whole gang went to this Pelagos on Bell Boulevard.

We started with some grilled octopus and shrimp. The octopus was nicely charred, not chewy at all, the same was with the shrimps, very nicely done. Then between the appetizers and the main course, we waited at least 15 minutes and the dining room wasn't all that busy at all. That was pretty annoying especially when you have young children who expect the continuous flow of food and won't sit still just enjoying the ambiance. Just like the name would have it, the color scheme of the place is mainly blue and the decor reminds people of the Aegean (I made this part up). At the end of the dining room is the open kitchen with some seafood on display.

When the main course came, the long wait was kind of forgotten and forgiven. We had grilled sardines, some Greek hamburger, chicken kebab, and seafood pasta. Everything was fresh and savory. The pasta was cooked al dente, with ample of seafood, very well seasoned, I say worth the $25 price tag. The hamburger was juicy and the fries were good too. We had the lemon potato and horta for sides. No ice cream for the kids but they did have some sweet dessert on the house and I ordered a cup of Greek coffee to go with the dessert.

Service was decent and the food was very good.

In the end with 18% tips thrown in, the check came to a grand total of about $120. Nowadays, 18% or even 20% is the new 15%.

Pelagos Seafood
38-11 Bell Blvd
Bayside, NY 11361

Weekend Fodder

MUJI is grand opening its store in Times Square on Eighth Avenue today. My source told me that there would be freebies handed out at 12PM when the store opened to the public. And everything turned out to be true. I was there and I got the gift without any hassle or waiting in any spirit crushing long line. I was frankly surprised that at 12.20PM, I was still able to get the giveaway which by the way was a nice paper organizer and a nice pencil.

The most anticipated movie Sex And The City, which comes like four year late finally opens today. Reviews have been negative and the more than 2-hour long movie was universally panned by critics and audience alike. The premiere held a couple of days ago at Radio City Hall was mostly described as a disaster, ticket holders were turned away because there simply weren't enough seats for the long line of people waiting to get in. One woman, surprise, from Singapore was credulous enough to pay $19,000 to be part of the SATC premiere, please.

The Sichuan Earthquake claimed another victim, sort of. Sharon Stone faces the wrath of the Chinese people when she kind of misspoke at the Cannes Film Festival. She name dropped Dalai Lama, Tibetans, Karma and then before she got the chance open her legs or mouth again, she was dropped by Dior, like for good. The Chinese people, the overlord of Dior, who is the overlord of Stone, dropped the actress as spokeperson for the brand and Sharon Stone is probably forever and ever banned in China. Chinese people are pretty fierce now. A force to be reckoned with and not messed with.

UPDATE:

This is the latest from The New York Times. A piece written by Cathy Horyn (released online on 5/30 and on paper 6/1). I had my doubt about Stone's alleged apology released by Dior Shanghai. Dior, with double digit growth in China was quick to appease knowing full well they couldn't afford to make enemy with money or its overlord in China. The NYTimes piece is more in her own words. Apparently and by her own admission, she had misspoken but the later shitstorm created by the press and the blogsphere largely took the first part of her speech without even bothering to mention the second part where she said she was humbled that the Tibetans offered to help Sichuan disaster relief effort so on and so forth. The emphasis was on brotherly love or love your enemy that kind of theme. Alas, what came out was more like karma retribution because of what Ms. Stone thought as the maltreatment of Han Chinese to Tibetans.

UPDATE 2:

It was only after reviewing the video in her home toward the end of the interview that it seemed to dawn on Ms. Stone why her comments had caused such an uproar. “I had absolutely no intention of saying that, which I did say,” she said, “and now, looking at it on the tape, I look like a complete ding-dong.”

Now, I hope fans of Ding Dong or Doraemon won't get offended.



Rachael Ray, the celebrity chef on foodnetwork tv plays terrorist in a Dunkin' Donut ad, that's what some folks were alleging. In a bid to avoid any controversy, Dunkin' Donut pulled the ad. Well that only stoked the controversy. Rachael Ray, the ever happy goes lucky girl next door, mini Martha Stewart home entertainment pint sized mogul and cunning linguist who coined EVOO and Yummo can't be promoting terrorism? But hey, you never know.

The Occassional Gardener

Eggplant

Tomato

Sage

Italian Basil

White Peony

Rants

The only reason I have home delivery of The New York Times is because I don't have electricity at home. No. Just kidding. Because my daily commute is only the time that I can do some reading offline which I happen to enjoy. So it annoys me to no end if the paper comes late after I leave home for work. Anything that comes late is no good, like if your significant other tells you Honey, I am late. You know that's no good. If the paper is late one more time, I am going to unsubscribe it for good. I am going to be an online free loader.

It's Summer Out There

Holy cow, it's hot out there.

The sun is out and the temperature is like in the 70s (the Internet says it's 82, I am way off) I think. I finally relented when I passed the Starbucks downstair. I bought myself a grande iced coffee, for a grand total of $2.60. Now I am sipping it, with guilty pleasure and conscience knowing full well that I just spent way too much on some fancy coffee that I don't need. I reasoned that I have been having free Starbucks coffee for the past few weeks (because I got a free coffee card from the New York Times) so it's just fair that I paid for one now.

Banal Suburban Life Continues

Yesterday we went to the Ikea on Long Island. We haven't been to the store for quite some time and I wanted to get some picture frames to hang some of my enlargements. If I don't like my own pictures who would? But before I could tell you that story I have to tell you this story.

We decided to have an early dinner before we went to Ikea or other stores. We wanted to check out Macaroni Cheese on Long Island again but when we got there the place got a sign put at the door saying the place was closed for business forever. So we walked to the nearby Chili's instead. That was our first Chili's experience. We waited for about 10 minutes before we got seated. Me and Harry were just sitting at one of those benches outside to wait for our turn, shooting the breeze, teasing each other and talking about the nuanced plot points of The Iron Man. He insists that he doesn't like Pepper even she is a good guy. The food wasn't bad but wasn't exceptional (how could that be?). Price wise, I think it was pretty reasonable and definitely cheaper than Outback, though I do think Outback has better food overall. In the end, we paid $60 tax and tips included for the five of us.

After we were done eating, it was around 8PM already, and the nearby mall was closed so we went to Ikea for real as it closes at 10PM every day. We hit the lower check out floor right away instead of just walking aimlessly around, I picked up a few frames for my 8x10 and 11x14 enlargements and a reading lamp along the way. The frames as I later found out were not cheap at all, around $15 each. Oh well. I needed those to hang the pictures. As we proceeded to the check out area, I noticed that they were all self service checkout now. I could be wrong but I didn't see one check out line that was manned by a real person. And now they charge 50 cents for a shopping bag. So I let Mr. Harry use the laser gun to scan the barcodes and of course he was thrilled to use anything that is laser, and ended up paying and grabbing everything myself.

The following day, I went to Home Depot and there were those self servicing checkouts again. Though Home Depot has those for quite some time already.

The cashier kind of job is fast disappearing.

Regular gas price over the weekend was more than $4 a gallon. And crude oil is over $130 a barrel. A lemon costs $0.99 at Walbaums.

A Day In The Life of A Suburban Dad

I have been waiting for Alex to ask me to see Iron Man.  And today he finally asked if we could go see it.  I've heard a lot of good things about the movie so I am a bit excited to see the movie as well.  Harry was a bit hesitant, I think he liked to see it but he was a bit scared by it.  Anyway, with promise of pop corn and Coke, he went along with us.

We went to see the first show at 10.30 in a multiplex in Whitestone which is about 20 minute drive.  The first show was $8.25, I just can't believe it.  And the large soda and pop corn was $10.30.  How was the movie?  Maybe I expected too much so I thought it wasn't as exciting as I would like it to be.  I was thinking in terms of Transformers kind of excitement, alas, it wasn't even close.  The plot was kind of flimsy, the action was all right.  The acting was decent.  The trailers have some of the very best scenes already.  Looking back, I think Transformers was really exceptional as far as robot like fighting is concerned.  Still it wasn't a bad movie at all.  The movie was more than two hours long, I was surprised that Harry was able to sit through it with the help of soda and popcorn.  So I guess it was good enough.

Glaring inconsistency:  Robert Downey Jr, or Tony Stark, in the last scene, preparing for his press conference, was seen having a pocket square, but when he was out at the lectern, the white pocket square was gone.

Movies to see:

Indiana Jones

Batman

Hulk

Kung Fu Panda

Barbeque

Barbeque spareribs with dried rub.

NYPL Eminent Domain Exhibition

I just went to have a quick look after work. I don't think I spent more than 15 minutes there. I have to go back again.

They look like snapshots but taken as a group, they become very meaningful. I like them especially the series taken in Chinatown by Thomas Holton. They are very documentary looking because they are. The project is not overtly poignant, or being condescending or melodramatic about its subject which is a family with young children living in Chinatown.

The online exhibition is here. I don't know if it's a permalink or not. Admission is free and donations are welcome.

Sichuan After Shock in Flushing

Holy cow, Flushing is in the news. Although not exactly like in New York Times as I have come to conclude that basically New York Times don't care about Chinese in New York City.

I have been living under a rock and I really didn't know there had been some altercation which led to councilman John Liu's intervention, and police arrest, happening in downtown Flushing right next to the public library where Kissena Avenue and Main Street intersects. The public library was nearly shut down because of the commotions and the library security officials had to secure the premise for its patrons. Wow, that's good news, because those security guards were finally doing their jobs instead of just shooting the breeze and harassing patrons who falls asleep at the desk or people merely waiting near the foyer so on and so forth. I digressed.

I just found out days later via ESWN that indeed the aftershock in Sichuan is finally hitting downtown Flushing, an immigrant enclave in Queens county that has nothing to do with Sex and the City. Falung Gong was doing its usual sidewalk show, probably with the recent quake in Sichaun thrown in to update their political and human rights agenda and whatnot. Usually most people really don't give a flying hoopla to their sidewalk propaganda show. Until allegedly three or four days ago when some Chinese people took offense and started to take matters in their own hand, arguing that during this particular juncture, that China is ravaged by a category 8 or 7.9 or 7.8 quake, some 50,000 people died and millions are homeless, FLG has the nerve to hold protest s against the Chinese Communist Party. Now, I am no fan of FLG nor CCP. And I have seen FLG's perennial complaints and the slogan "Heaven Destroys CCP" long before the quake. So what the heck is the problem? You can't beat up people just because you don't agree with you? Unless it's your 7 year old kid brother. This is really the last thing I want to see in Flushing or actually anywhere else. Live and let live people.

Go home, go home eat rice.

A Trip To Adorama

Just when I was about to leave work yesterday, I got an email from Adorama telling me that my prints were ready for pickup.

The weather was surly with depressing rain and spring chill. I saved some $5 and probably a few days when I chose to pick up the prints myself on 18th street between 5th and 6th Avenue where the store is located. I placed the order the night before after 10PM, so the turn around was impressive. I had some prior experience with Adorama and they were quite good, I didn't feel like I got ripped off or anything.

The prints came out all right, I picked the metallic paper kind of material and I think they are supposed to be the best, I can't be sure but they do cost more than the regular paper. Prints and JPEGs on monitor are different animals. I like the JPEGs on monitor better especially looking hrough my HP 2207. Oh well. I asked one of the staff if they still process film or slide, the answer was no, not unexpected.

I got the chance to play with some higher end DSLRs when I was there, the D300 with the 18~200 and the Canon 5D with the 24~105. Both are well-built even I always read from forums that the 5D is not professionally built but I say it's still very good, probably better than my Nikon D70. The D300 has the edge in terms of user experience, a large LCD monitor, quick response, bright view finder, snappy focusing and a zillion AF focusing little points. The 5D is not bad but just not as good. But then here is the big "BUT," in terms of absolute out of the camera JPEGs, the 5D really rules, judging from my second hand experience looking through JPEGs comparison between the two. I can argue ad nauseam which one is better, or some people can, but the point is it all depends on what is important to you.

Love And Sympathy And more

And with love and sympathy to the people of China from the people of the United States.
-- Laura Bush

So Laura Bush speaks for me already.

People who have problems with G.W. Bush generally don't have a problem with Laura Bush. The same can't be said about Senator Obama's wife Michelle Obama. Senator Obama warned or pleaded on network TV that "people should lay off my wife." Would-be-first-lady Michelle Obama was criticized for remarking that "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m proud of my country" when Obama was doing well in the Democratic party. Another first-lady-wanna-be and ghostly beer lady Cindy McCain, wife of senior citizen John McCain, quickly seized the opportunity and bitch-slapped Michelle Obama by stating that "I am proud of my country. I don’t know about you? If you heard those words earlier, I am very proud of my country." Meanwhile president-wanna-be and ex-first lady, senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is fighting for her Democratic nomination. What impresses me is she flats out states that she would support Obama and hopes her supporters will do the same, should he be the nominee of the party. There is no if's or but's, I think that shows some class.

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A History of Violence

Shot in the kitchen. Natural lighting. Nikon D70, Nikkor 50mm f1.4 manual focus, manual exposure.

Nikkor 70~200 Review by Rockwell

Ken did his own evaluation on the Nikkor 70~200 f2.8 VR and again his findings are largely in line with what has been concluded by many others: edge sharpness suffers on FX sensor.  However, he proclaims that it really doesn't matter all things considered.  At the end of the day, you really need to make your own decision depending on what matters to you the most.  And to Mr. Rockwell, the edge softness doesn't bother him the least.

Previous post on Nikkor 70~200 f2.8 VR.

CNNHD

Wow, CNN, the bellwether of cable news is finally broadcasting in high definition. I don't know when they started to have it but I just found out moments ago. Is that why Larry King is retiring soon? Is that why more anchors are getting their faces done? I am just making things up. I think not all the contents are in HD yet, in fact, most aren't. I am watching Larry King Live now, it's just not in HD.

UPDATE:
So silver fox Anderson Cooper's AC360 got the HD treatment while the sedentary senile Larry King still got stuck in standard broadcast.

John Edwards is endorsing Obama, so he wants to capitalize on Obama's momentum and to be a vice president.

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Viewing pictures at 100% sometimes is pretty discouraging. You find all the faults and warts in focusing, and camera shake. Life was better when people are just printing 4x6.

All pictures shot using my aging D70, Nikkon 80~200 f2.8, processed using UFRaw via GIMP under Ubuntu 8.04.

The Crest Finally Hit Me

LET it be noted without contention that the crest of the flow of recent films from the "new wave" of young French directors hit these shores yesterday with the arrival at the Fine Arts Theatre of "The 400 Blows" ("Les Quatre Cents Coups") of Françcois Truffaut.

Bosley Crowther, November 17, 1959, The New York Times

With tax payers money hard at work, I borrowed the DVD from the library and talked myself into watching it. The crest of the "new wave" finally reached my basement, and hit me in full force, 49 years after its debut. This is not some overtly intellectual film reserved for the film critics and cultural elites. I found it enjoyable and satisfying; it has certain ferocity, unadorned earnestness and poignancy that I appreciate and find lacking in contemporary cinema.

Internal Card Reader

SYBA PCI USB 2.0 & FireWire/1394a combo card Model SD-COMBO-02
A 10-pin USB header. Cut the yellow pin, i.e. pin 9, so it can take a 9-pin connection cable. If you screw up, don't blame it on me. You've been warned.
JPEG from Adeltek

This is a continuation of my Crappy PC hardware that works in Ubuntu
[WARNINGS: If you follow any of the instructions on this blog and cause some major or minor screw-up, like, but not limited to, PC blow-up or bodily harm or death, it's not really my problem. You have been warned.]

My latest additions to my ever expanding Ubuntu rig consist some big ticket items. A Koutech IO-RCM620 USB2.0 3.5" card reader and a Kingston 4GB USB drive.

The Koutech thing can read like 1,000 different cards. Actually "card reader" is an understatement. This thing can write between media as well. I tested that at least on two different media types. I was able to copy and paste a 5MB file between a 4GB CF card and a 4GB USB drive, which took no time at all.. The thing comes with a mini CD and no paper documentation whatsoever.

Installation:
Let's get the Kingston 4GB USB drive out of the way. The thing doesn't need any installation. It's just plug and play. It's a FAT32 file system so I guess Linux is just fine with it. I am not that technical.

The Koutech card reader is a bit involved, meaning I have to open my beautiful big ass beige box. To secure it on my empty 3.5" bay and connect the USB cable to my existing USB card.

The reader has a USB cable that needs to plug in some USB header which I know I have but not exactly sure how. My USB card is the legendary SYBA PCI USB 2.0 & FireWire/1394a combo card Model SD-COMBO-02. Turns out the card has a 10-pin USB header. And the reader USB cable is for 9-pin. So I don't know which pin to cut in order to plug the cable into the header. The SYBA site generally lacks those information but they do have some not so active forums and someone is nice enough to post a link that leads to a picture indicating what pin to cut. You know a picture is really worth a thousand words. With that picture, I cut the extra 9th pin. And I plugged in the USB cable onto the card. I plug the USB card back onto the motherboard on a different PCI card slot which is closer to the card reader. Power up the box. And everything just works. Instead of using my D70 as a mass storage device to read my CF card, I can now just remove the CF card and plug that into the reader. The D70 is just USB 1.1 (12Mbps) so I am gaining some serious USB 2.0 (480Mbps) speed too. Plus the reader has the a front USB so that's convenient for some iPod and thumb drive action. My hp w2207 has two USB ports on the left side, access is not very good as I can't really see sideway.

Story Time: A Man Like Him

A Man Like Him by Yiyun Li, is loosely based on or inspired by an online fodder happened in China some time ago: a daughter using her web sites to expose her father's alleged infidelity and seeks justice online. Li's short story, appears on the May 12 New Yorker, centers on a retired elementary school art teacher, Teacher Fei, who unlike most other online netizens, takes the side of the father. Fei eventually meets up with the father and forms some kindred relationship the brief moment they share in a little diner before they part their way to return to their own places where there are actually nothing worth to return to. The protagonist insists "He has nothing to say about this world." Not so for Li. She seems to be just warming up. She has plenty to say about this world, the Chineseness of Chinese people, their past and present in China and in foreign lands.

Iron Man

Iron Man has scored huge over the weekend. It has grossed more than 100 million. It's just an unbelievable box office success. Perhaps this time around, Robert Downey Jr. can really become a box office draw. Condition: he has to be in that iron man suit, just like Johnny Depp in his pirate costume. Robert Downey Jr. from young promising actor to Oscar nominated actor to junkie to box office success.

Yahoo!

Over the weekend, Steve Ballmer came to his senses, which doesn't happen too often, and withdrew his hostile bid on Yahoo!. Jerry Yang has a lot to answer to now, shareholders lawsuits for one.

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All shot using a Nikkor 80~200 f2.8 lens. Natural lighting.

Nikkor 70~200 Review at dpreview

Dpreview, over the weekend, published its own Nikkor 70~200 review. The result is largely in line with what others had found out. The lens, despite its 35mm design, is really performing at its best under Nikon's own smaller DX sensor. So the next question is not if but when Nikon is going to update this once legendary lens. Of course, some owners still stand by the lens, brushing off or happily oblivious to, all its drawbacks if mounted on a FX camera, the one and only one D3. It is just like before Nikon has full frame and low noise high ISO performance, most Nikon die-hards wrote off full frame and low noise and then right after D3, most did an about face and raved about how good FF and low noise are. I expect the same thing with the Nikkor 70~200 and its successor.

I will never find out first hand how a 70~200 perfoms. I have a 80~200 f2.8, and I am pretty happy with its performance on my D70. Sometimes it's hard to get a sharp image due to its longer focal length. But with proper technique and lighting, it's very much doable.